Slovenia/ 5.2 Legislation on culture  

As the political system was transformed at the beginning of the 1990s, legislation on culture also had to be changed in its entirety. The new Constitution of Slovenia in 1991, established traditional rights with regard to culture including freedom of artistic creation, cultural development and heritage protection as well as providing copyright, cultural and linguistic rights for Italian and Hungarian minorities, rights for the Roma community and assistance for Slovenes living in either neighbouring countries or around the world.

In December 1994, the public's interest in culture was regulated for the first time. In November 2002, the Act was revised in its entirety in order to create proper means for its implementation and to reconsider the model. Thus, Act on Enforcing Public Interest in the Field of Culture (2002) is now an umbrella law and currently consists of:

• setting rules for cultural policy decision-making (openness, participation, responsibility, efficiency, coherence);
• enacting five main cultural policy objectives (see chapter 2.3);
• defining the main actors (in addition to the public authorities, the National Council for Culture and the Cultural Chamber of Slovenia);
• establishing some special mechanisms for cultural policy formulation (National Program for Culture and regular annual report to the Parliament on its implementation, public tenders and calls for proposals for public funding, which set the aims, criteria and conditions for the allocation of public funds, mandatory agreements between the state and municipalities which define common cultural policy objectives);
• launching the system of public cultural services (special chapter concerning the establishment, administration, operation and financing of public cultural institutions);
• financing cultural activities (institutional funding for public institutions and projects and program funding for NGOs); and
• defining the rights of artists regarding social security and pensions.

There are also other general acts affecting culture, i.e. the Public Finance Act, the Local Government Act, the Civil Servants Act, the Salary System in the Public Sector Act, the General Administrative Procedure Act (see also chapter 5.1.1).

Besides the umbrella law, there is another law, which is affecting different spheres of culture: Provision of Funds for Certain Vital Cultural Programmes of the Republic of Slovenia Act 1998 (last amended in 2008). The latter is a Financial Act that in 1998 ensured financial means for some urgent programmes in the period 1998-2003. It was extended two times already: the second time in 2008 to the year 2013. The funds were distributed in various areas: investments in the premises of public institutions, co-financing to build up municipal libraries and to provide IT to general libraries, monument restoration, support for library networks, cinema and multimedia centres, and amateur culture and youth cultural centres. Its provisions have not been fully implemented since 1998; on avarage only 33% of the envisaged funds were allocated per year. The main explanation lies with municipalities that could not ensure their co-funding in the implementation of the eligible projects. It is difficult to say that these funds represent fresh money for culture. It is more about the specification of the allocation of funds. The Act was adopted on the initiative of the members of the Parliament and does not represent a comprehensive strategy but a summary of different interests.

The Structural Funds of the EU provided a new framework for projects financed from the European Regional Development Fund during the period 2004-2006 (e.g. castles owned by the Republic of Slovenia, Multimedia Centres, etc). The Provision of Funds for Certain Vital Cultural Programmes of the Republic of Slovenia Act enables the Ministry of Culture to reserve resources for the European Regional Development Fund. The law has contributed to regional development, while on the other hand, the securing national investments in, for example, the national library, arts academies etc.

In addition to the Act on Enforcing Public Interest in the Field of Culture (2002), there are others that regulate specific cultural sectors such as: Mass Media Act, Librarianship Act, Cultural Heritage Protection Act, and Archival Material and Archives Act.

Some specific areas are also regulated through legislation such as the France Prešeren Award Act and the Providing Funds for some Programmes in the Culture Act.

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